Evaluation of digital library websites
A I M Jakaria Rahman
Supervisor: Professor Vittore Casarosa
This report is submitted for the fulfillment of the Module 5 – Access to
Digital library, International master in digital library learning program.
International Master in Digital Library Learning
Parma University, Italy
October, 2011
Executive summary
The aim of this report is to evaluate digital library websites, and make a critical analysis. For
this purpose, four digital libraries, namely the Public Library of Science (PLoS), International
Children’s digital Library, North South University, and International Centre for Diarrhoeal
Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) have been considered as an example. This
evaluation report has thrown light on users’ perception of the digital library environment
from three different points of views that is usefulness and value of the content, richness of
functionality, and ease of use. The evaluation is followed by a general discussion and
conclusion. It may help policy makers to identify ways in which they can motivate their
management for building digital library interfaces and help library managers to identify their
user’s different requirements in the digital library interface.
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Contents
Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 2
List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... 4
1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Reasons behind choosing these digital library websites ..................................................................... 6
2.1 Public Library of Science (PLoS) .................................................................................................... 6
2.1.2 Usefulness and value of the content ..................................................................................... 7
2.1.3 Richness of functionality ........................................................................................................ 7
2.1.4 Ease of use ............................................................................................................................. 8
2.2 International Children’s digital Library ......................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Usefulness and value of the content ................................................................................... 10
2.2.3 Richness of functionality ...................................................................................................... 10
2.2.4 Ease of use ........................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 North South University ............................................................................................................... 12
2.3.1 Usefulness and value of the content ................................................................................... 12
2.3.2 Richness of functionality ...................................................................................................... 13
2.3.4 Ease of use ........................................................................................................................... 13
2.4 International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) .......................... 14
2.4.1 Usefulness and value of the content ................................................................................... 14
2.4.2 Richness of functionality ...................................................................................................... 15
2.4.3 Ease of use ........................................................................................................................... 16
3 Discussion........................................................................................................................................... 16
4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 17
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Home page of the Public Library of Science............................................................................ 6
Figure 2. Quick navigation bar ................................................................................................................ 8
Figure 3. PLoS on Twitter ........................................................................................................................ 8
Figure 4. Home page of the International Children's Digital Library ...................................................... 9
Figure 5. Short description of books ..................................................................................................... 10
Figure 6. Simple search interface.......................................................................................................... 11
Figure 7. Home page of the North South University Library ................................................................ 12
Figure 8. Book details interface ............................................................................................................ 13
Figure 9. Collections list at a glance ...................................................................................................... 13
Figure 10. Home page of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Library ................................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 11. DSpace Log In of ICDDR,B..................................................................................................... 15
Figure 12. Search interface of ICDDR,B's Dspace .................................................................................. 15
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Evaluation of digital library web sites
1 Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide an evaluation on four digital library websites that
could be taken as an example of the good digital library. There are numerous communities
interested in digital libraries. Each has a differing conception and definition, affecting the
conceptual nature. Moreover, there are several definitions for digital library given by several
authors. This evaluation report concentrated on the digital libraries that are built for research,
university communities or fictions. For the purpose of the report, the working definition of
digital libraries is considered as, Digital libraries are libraries with the same purposes,
functions, and goals as traditional libraries, with specific digital content collection
development policy, management, subject analysis, index creation, reference work, long time
preservation, and the contents are accessible thorough the interface of the library website.
This report evaluates four digital library websites, two in International perspective:
i)
Public Library of Science (PLoS),
ii)
International Children’s digital Library,
and in a specific country, Bangladesh perspective:
iii)
North South University, and
iv)
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
This evaluation report has discussed each of the digital library initiatives from three different
points of views:
a) Usefulness and value of the content,
b) Richness of functionality, and
c) Ease of use.
Later the evaluation followed by discussion and conclusion.
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2 Reasons behind choosing these digital library websites
For this report, to make a balance between different kind of digital libraries like, public,
children, university communities, and special digital libraries and rational in case of choosing
libraries. However, there is a condition for choosing two from international perspectives and
two from the own country perspective. Follow on all the conditions and to grab a balanced
picture about digital library websites, this report chooses the successful digital libraries that
reflect different kinds of digital library. In case of selecting the digital libraries, the users’
community has been also taken into consideration.
2.1 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
The Public Library of Science (PLoS, website address: http://www.plos.org) is a nonprofit
publisher and advocacy organization with a mission of leading a transformation in scientific
and medical research communication. This initiative began early 2000 as an online petition
initiative by Patrick O. Brown, a biochemist at Stanford University, and Michael Eisen, a
computational biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.
Figure 1. Home page of the Public Library of Science
The petition called for all scientists to pledge that from September 2000 they would
discontinue submission of papers to journals which did not make the full-text of their papers
available to all, free and unfettered, either immediately or after a delay of several months.
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Since its founding in 2000, PLoS’s mission has been to make “the world’s scientific and
medical literature a freely available public resource.” All material published by the Public
Library of Science, whether submitted to or created by PLoS, is published under an open
access license freely available online for anyone to use. It allows unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PLoS publishes seven peer-reviewed open-access journals, namely, PLoS ONE, PLoS
Biology. PLoS Medicine, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Pathogens,
and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The journals vary in their selectivity and contain
differing amounts of commentary articles from opinion leaders in a variety of scientific
disciplines.
2.1.2 Usefulness and value of the content
The designated user community of PLoS consists of everyone, from researchers, educators,
and patient advocates to funders, policymakers, and the public who are interested in medical
research or bio-diversity, climate change, etc. One of the aims of PLoS is to minimize the
delay between the generation and publication of new research. The content is peer-reviewed,
citable, publicly archived, and included in PubMed. By facilitating and accelerating the
sharing of new findings and ideas, PLoS accelerates the research cycle itself. The authors use
Google Knol to write their submission and are in complete control of the appearance of their
article. Submission to publication can take place in a matter of days and there are no
publication fees.
2.1.3 Richness of functionality
A wide variety of functionalities are available in PLoS site. For example, there are simple
search box with the option of advance search for expert users. In addition the search box
appears on every screen while browsing, that helps users to use the time maximum rather
than go back to home page. The simple search can be further filtered by subject categories,
journal name, article types, etc. The Instructions for constructing search is always available
on the right hand side of the advance search option. In addition, while exploring the journals
it gives at a glance on recent research, featured discussions and most viewed articles, which
help a user to be up-to-date with the research community.
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Figure 2. Quick navigation bar
The majority of the contents is broken down according to respective discipline. Users can
browse the articles by publication date, collection name, subject, current issues or can give a
look to the journal’s archives.
2.1.4 Ease of use
The interface is a very friendly and all the functionalities are visible at a glance. There is a
global navigation bar which provides links with useful information for its readers and authors
who want to submit their article.
Figure 3. PLoS on Twitter
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The footnote provides information on the license policy that the website adheres to this. The
bottom of the website provides other useful links with information to – privacy statement,
terms of use, information for advertisers, media inquiries and site map. Moreover, there are
web 2.0 technologies embedded in the site like blogs and twitter that simply enhance the
communication between the user community and keep them updated.
2.2 International Children’s digital Library
The
International
Children's
Digital
Library
(ICDL,
website
address:
http://en.childrenslibrary.org) launched in November 2002, is a free online library of digitized
children's books. This is the largest collection of its kind.
Figure 4. Home page of the International Children's Digital Library
The Library is housed by the International Children's Digital Library Foundation and was
originally developed in the College of Information Studies and the Human-Computer
Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland. The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build
a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from
throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language
represented, so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature
from the world community. The goal of the library is to excite and inspire young readers to
become better world citizens by leveraging technology to reach underserved children who
have little access to libraries. The ICDL is offered free of charge to everyone, everywhere
with no advertising.
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2.2.1 Usefulness and value of the content
"Denial of access to information in one's mother tongue is equivalent to a denial of a human
right." - UNESCO (2005). One of the fundamental principles of ICDL is that children and
their families deserve to have access to the books of their culture, as well as the majority
culture, regardless of where they live. The ICDL spans the globe with thousands of children's
books from over 73 countries, in a wide range of beautiful languages with attractive
illustrations. It is designed specifically for use by children ages 3 to 13.
Figure 5. Short description of books
The ICDL has a collection of thousands books, completely free, in dozens of languages.
Books are selected based on quality and appropriateness and are presented in their original
language with copyright permission from publishers or authors. All books have summaries in
English and the native language of the book, special support for readability - by zooming text
(for many books) and many books translated into other languages too.
2.2.3 Richness of functionality
The Home page showed language option for English, Mongolian, Spanish, Russian
languages. Other than that users can select Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese
(Traditional), Croatian, Filipino/Tagalog, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Persian/Farsi,
Polish, Portuguese, Thai from language selection option. However, as it demands as
international, therefore it should try to cover all the languages of the countries that are
member of the United Nations. However, the collection is built on 73 different languages
that is quite an excellent gathering.
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2.2.4 Ease of use
The interface is easy for user, especially for children. It has a simple search box, beside it
there is search for books by countries, advanced search, keyword search, recently added
books, award-winning books, collection, featured book, etc. Children can search for books by
location, color, length, intended age group, content type, and emotional quality, among other
qualifiers.
Figure 6. Simple search interface
An advanced search option is also provided for more experienced or older users, and all users
can register to save search preferences and favorite books. Apart from this, there are number
of options for choice to read books according to length of books like short books, medium
books, long books; according to the nature of stories like fairy tales and folk tales, kid
characters, real animals; according to pictures character like imaginary creature character,
picture book, chapter books; according to age like three to five, six to nine, ten to thirteen ,
also it give the user to choose books according to color of covers like Rainbow , red, orange,
yellow, green, blue and many more choices.
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2.3 North South University
North South University (NSU, website address: http://library.northsouth.edu) is one of the
pioneer universities in Bangladesh in the private sector. The University Library launched in
1992 and using Bilingual Library Management Software, developed by them.
Figure 7. Home page of the North South University Library
It supports both Bengali and English languages, web-based online lending, reservation,
browsing databases of full-text e-books, online journal archives, books, CDs and journal
catalogues, auto email alert services, user statistics, etc. Its online databases provide full
access to all users, facilitates navigation and reservation of books from remote workstations
through its own website. NSU has developed an Institutional repository by using its own
software in 2003 and have a collection of approximately 22,000 articles and reports and 2,000
full-text e-books.
2.3.1 Usefulness and value of the content
The NSU digital library allows its university users’ community to access a lot of different
e-resources, repositories, print archives etc. that are subscribed by the same university.
However, the access is not free and it needs membership, which is a valid university ID. It
covers all the discipline and courses that taught in that particular university. Beside that the
university preserved the preprint or post print of articles that are published in peer-reviewed
journals by the university communities.
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2.3.2 Richness of functionality
The digital library is supports web-based online circulation system. Its online database
provides full access to all users, facilitates navigation and reservation of books and journals
from distant work-stations.
Figure 8. Book details interface
The users can also check their borrowing status and can reserve books for 48 hours through
the Internet. At the same time, users can read and download full-text of all the subscribed ejournals, e-books, and digitized materials of the institutional repositories. It is a combination
of digital library systems and automated library system. As a result, users need not to explore
two sites for the same purpose.
2.3.4 Ease of use
The interface is friendly, but it needs login as well the user should have a valid university ID.
Figure 9. Collections list at a glance
Through the interface user can search books, online journals, print journals, e-journals,
audiovisual materials, online books, e-books, print magazines etc. They can also come to
know about new collections, search subject index, e-magazines, print newspapers and check
their account status, book reservation and send a requisition for new books. However, as a
university digital library there is missing some functionality like user community, RSS feed
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or virtual reference services. The limitation of the search is that user can search only one kind
of materials at a time that is time consuming and barrier to see what other resources have at
the same time.
2.4 International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B,
website
address: http://dspace.icddrb.org/dspace) - an international health research institution located
in Dhaka, Bangladesh since 1960. It addresses some of the most critical health concerns
facing the world today, ranging from improving neonatal survival to HIV/AIDS.
Figure 10. Home page of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Library
In collaboration with academic and research institutions throughout the world, ICDDR,B
conducts research, training and extension activities, as well as program-based activities, to
develop and share knowledge for global lifesaving solutions. It has an institutional repository,
in real sense it is a flavor of digital library but somehow in advance level. The mission of the
Institutional Repository is to capture and preserve ICDDR,B’s intellectual output and make
them available online for global research community.
2.4.1 Usefulness and value of the content
The first user community is the researcher and staff of the organization. It is also available by
anyone from anywhere in the world. However, as per organization policy the articles that are
copyrighted by any publishers are only available to the research community of the
organization with valid ID and password.
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Figure 11. DSpace Log In of ICDDR,B
Besides the immediate user community, document submitter can get access to Institutional
Repository; in that case he/she also needs ID & Password. The system administrator gives the
ID & password. The content covers a broad area of life sciences, and biomedical literatures,
including Journal articles, abstracts, letter, conference proceedings, monographs, reports, and
book chapters.
2.4.2 Richness of functionality
As the library is using open source software DSpace, there are some limitations about the
richness of functionality. It is still using the defined basic functionalities of the DSpace
software. For institutional repository users, it is quite all right, but sometimes it is time
consuming to get a specific literature. For example, there are simple search box with the
option of advance search for expert users. In addition the search box appears on the left side
top corner of every screen while browsing. However, the simple search cannot be further
filtered.
Figure 12. Search interface of ICDDR,B's Dspace
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The Instructions for constructing search is not available anywhere, so the users should be an
expert internet user. The majority of the contents is broken down according to the user
community. Users can browse the articles by communities and collection, titles, authors,
subjects and publication date too.
2.4.3 Ease of use
The interface is a friendly, but all the functionalities are not visible at a glance. There is a
global navigation bar at the right hand side. The bottom of the website does not provide any
other useful links with information. There is no use of web 2.0 technologies that embedded in
the site like blogs or twitter. However, the registered users receive updates about their
research interest though e-mail.
3 Discussion
This report evaluated digital library websites of four different kinds. The first one is open
access in nature and accessible by everyone, but the content (medical/biodiversity research)
of the library itself decide about its user. The second one is for children that range from 3 to
13 years and the content is only fictional or pictorial books that suit its user community. The
third one reflects university community and has controlled user community. Last but not the
least, the fourth one is for research communities of life science and medical research with
controlled access to some resources and free access as well for other resources. All of them
have different approaches for usefulness and the value of content, originality and richness of
functionality, and ease of use. It seems that they tried their level best to give the maximum
flexibility to the user to get the right materials at the right time. An extensive diversity of
ways to retrieve desired materials are also considered by those libraries. All of the interfaces
are designed keeping in the mind of both the new users and expert users. Only one of them
used the state of the art technology like web 2.0 to enhance more facilities between user
communities. The majority of them followed the conventional way of digital libraries, but
tried a lot to give maximum functionality according to the level of users.
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4 Conclusion
In a nutshell, a digital library web interface is the key for users’ access. This key should be
built according to the needs of the users’ communities. These library websites could be done
in more improvise ways if they conduct a survey and consult the user feedback to develop
and add more functionality for the respective websites. However, a new digital library project
may consult these library websites to have ideas for their respective digital library web
interface.
Bibliography
Druin et al. (May 2003). The International Children's Digital Library: Description and analysis of first use. First
Monday 8 (5).
Chowdhury (2011). Building Institutional Repositories in Bangladesh Using Dspace: A New Paradigm of
Scholarly Communication, Library Philosophy and practice, October 2011
Public Library of Science’s website http://www.plos.org [Accessed on 3 October 2011]
International Children’d Digital Library website http://en.childrenslibrary.org [Accessed on 4 October 2011]
North South university library website http://library.northsouth.edu/aboutlibrary.php [Accessed on 18 October
2011]
North South university website http://www.northsouth.edu/index.php [Accessed on 18 October 2011]
ICDDR,B website http://www.icddrb.org [Accessed on 27 October 2011]
ICDDR,B Institutional Repository website http://dspace.icddrb.org/dspace [Accessed on 27 October 2011]
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